Sonication
by Echo Spectre
Summary: Dr. Eggman desparately needs help defeating his ultimate enemy, Sonic the Hedgehog. He decides that the only way to trick the ways of the universe and ensure that rodent's demise is to have a reliable ally–one who is just as powerful as his foe, one he can control, one who is an exact organic replica of the blue hedgehog... REWRITE, RECENTLY UPDATED, READ FROM BEGINNING
1. Ben

Chapter 1: Ben

 **PLEASE READ - This story is set in the modern Sonic time period/universe, but NOT Sonic Boom. It does have some chronological ties to Sonic X, but not those that are super important, and there is NO Chris, thank you very much. Do keep in mind that the human world on Earth's timeline moves faster than Sonic's, as it does in the show. Anyway, thanks for checking this out. I have a huge plot all planned out for this, and there will be a lot of twists coming. Please read and give me some reviews, I really really appreciate any and ALL feedback! Don't forget to follow/favorite this story, because I will post more chapters in the future. Thanks!**

 **IMPORTANT NOTE: Before you leave the story for any reason, please let me know in the comments what turned you away or what didn't really appeal to you about it. I would love to know. Thanks, guys!**

It was the final day of Sophomore year.

Sixteen-year-old Benjamin Gardner waited for his best friend, Jared Brooks, to finish up at his locker. To most teenagers, Ben could tell, this day was measured up to be of massive significance in their lives, yet to him it just felt like any other normal day. In fact, it might've actually been bleaker than all the rest.

All Ben had to look forward to during the summer was listening to his parents argue and/or refuse to acknowledge each other as they went about their business at home. They had been growing ever more distant, and rarely showed much affection toward each other during the day, and since he was an only child he felt lonely in the house, knowing that his parents' moods would be in no state to make him want to be around them. Ben was unaware of any family trips or reunions planned for the summer, and so the only things that could possibly keep his spirits up were hanging with Jared or playing video games, sometimes even both at once.

Ben was taller for his age. He was 6'3" and still growing. He didn't play many sports like lacrosse or soccer. His heart was mostly set on electronics and engineering. Today, however, he was wearing basketball shorts and a t-shirt. He had dark brown hair and brown eyes, and had just a few freckles dotting his face.

Jared finally closed his locker door and approached Ben standing against the painted brick wall in the crowded hallway. Jared was around 5'8", had sandy blonde hair and blue-grey eyes. The boys had similar interests, which is part of why they were such good friends. Jared, however, played soccer along with his love of video games.

"You ready to go?" Ben asked his friend.

"Yeah, man, I just needed to make sure I didn't leave any snacks to rot in my locker all summer," Jared snickered.

The two friends lived in neighboring neighborhoods, so to speak, and so Ben drove them both home after school in his tiny, old, navy sedan.

"See ya, Ben!" called out Jared as Ben stopped the car in front of his house. "Come over whenever you get some free time sometime."

"Then I'll be here all the time, dude," Ben replied. "See you later!" He watched as his friend trotted up the front porch to his house and went inside, then he left to head back to his own house.

Ben lived in a quiet neighborhood in a suburban town in the middle of Idaho. The place was nothing special, but it was peaceful and beautiful most of the year as the landscape experienced all four seasons. Yet in the summer it was just dry, yellow, and hot. Desert-like. Another aspect to not look forward to now that school wasn't there to keep his mind busy.

He arrived at his neighborhood, but stopped on the way home at the joint mailbox with the different compartments for each house on the block. He was excited for the mail today because he was expecting the latest video game that he'd ordered and couldn't wait to start playing.

He had heard stories online about the most iconic hedgehog in gaming, Sonic, actually existing and being on Earth in the past, but he knew those stories couldn't have been true. They were just fanfiction. If there was even a slight possibility that it was true, it would have happened decades ago because Ben had never met anyone who would have been alive to witness it. He had heard that those stories were the inspiration for the video games, but Ben thought they were just tales for kids. All he cared about was playing and enjoying the gameplay and stories, and that's all he needed. He had experienced everything that the Sonic Team had produced, and loved every aspect of it, especially Sonic the Hedgehog as the heroic, free-spirited character that he was. Ben was the expert on all things Sonic, and that's what he enjoyed the most during his down time.

Feeling inside the mailbox labeled 'Gardner', Ben found the stack of letters and bills that usually came daily, but he didn't feel a package. Slightly disappointed, he looked through the pile of mail that he held in his hands just in case he found anything interesting. He was surprised when he spotted a smaller letter addressed with his name. Strangely, there wasn't a stamp or even a name or address of the sender anywhere to signify that it had been mailed. And these boxes were locked by the mailman himself. Curious, he got back in his car with the pile from the mailbox and drove to his own house with a desire to examine the envelope further.

Inside, he placed the rest of the letters on the kitchen counter. His mom, Kara Gardner, was in there eating chips with store-bought salsa, reading something on her phone.

"Hey, Ben. How was school," she said routinely, without looking up.

"Fine. It was the last day today," he replied back.

She looked up at him, mildly shocked to hear that. "Oh, I didn't realize it was so soon for school to be out. How were your grades?"

"Good. As good as they'll ever be," Ben replied, wondering why his mom never bothered to check up with him on his grades before now.

She was looking at her phone again. She nodded. "That's good."

Ben looked at her a moment, then proceeded upstairs to his bedroom, where he dropped his backpack on the floor by his bed and shut his door. His dad was currently at work, but he knew his mom usually wouldn't bother him if he kept his bedroom door shut. He had formed a habit of avoiding his parents when he could, since they were in bad moods much of the time they were ever together.

Excited to read his mysterious letter, he sat on his bed and kicked off his shoes before sliding his finger underneath the paper fold to tear it open. A mixture of emotions ran through his head as he fingered open the flap; first surprise, then disappointment, and lastly confusion seeing as there was absolutely nothing inside.

In reality, unbeknownst to Ben, there were many things in that letter, only they were undetected as they appeared mere particles in the air. They came zooming out of their enclosure the moment the seal was broken, and headed toward the nearest living source sitting in front of them.

Suddenly, Ben felt something strange happening to him. The moment after he opened the letter he felt a prickle on the surface of his skin, a rather odd sensation. It ran across his legs and feet, his midsection and torso, down his arms, across his back, up to his neck, and over his face. It felt like the tiniest of needles pricking every inch of him at rapid succession, and he couldn't explain to himself why he felt this way. He expected it to quickly fade and disappear, like a shudder of cold, but instead the sensation intensified until he felt as though he was on fire. His fingers gave a spasm and he dropped the empty envelope onto the floor. Gasping with pain, he weakly moved to lay his burning, prickling body across his bed and had a feeling he would have the inability to get back up any time soon. He laid on his back, panting, and his shirt soon became soaked with sweat.

Ben's muscles were out of control. He was twitching all over, and he could barely control his movements, as though he was being electrocuted. The pain was so strong that it was all he could do to keep himself from screaming. He didn't want to cause his mom any worry, and he was in no shape anyway to get his phone out of his backpack to call for help.

After minutes of agony flowing through each layer of his skin, all the feeling in his body went away. The pins and needles faded, but left him completely immobilized on his bed. The numbness melted all the way from his chest down to his legs and over his arms and hands. He felt like his heart was beating out of his chest and pounding in his head from fear. He was so confused and terrified. He could feel that his arms and legs were still present, but when he tried to move them they didn't respond. He had no idea what could possibly be happening to him.

After what felt like hours but was just several minutes of complete and terrifying paralysis, Ben found that he was able to weakly inch his head from side to side. His nerves felt really tender, and he didn't want to try to make any sudden movements.

A bit more time passed, and he was able to slightly move his limbs, and later, his spine. Once feeling crept back through his muscles, Ben was finally able to sit up, relieved that the weird sensations had gone away. He took off his sweat-drenched t-shirt and sat on the edge of his bed, pondering this anomaly.

 _What a strange thing to happen_ , he thought. He took a mental self-evaluation and decided that he felt pretty normal compared to what had just occurred moments ago, but his general sense of bodily comfort was still a bit off. There was something wrong, but he couldn't figure out what it was. Then, he looked down at his bare feet hanging off the edge of the bed.

 _Wait,_ he thought, _hanging_? He was a tall guy, and he definitely remembered that when he sat on his bed his legs easily touched the floor. Now they were dangling about a foot off the ground, like they had become...shorter. He blinked rapidly in confusion. Yes, they were. As Ben stared in shock and disbelief at what he was seeing he also began to feel very itchy all over.

Wanting to see more easily what was happening to him, Ben immediately slid off his bed and stumbled over to his closet door, itching his legs in the process. The full-length mirror covering it revealed that he was indeed shorter. The position of the doorknob felt a bit more in the location it was when he was eight. He examined himself closer in the mirror. His bare chest looked a bit funny, his waist was a lot smaller than it usually was. His legs and arms were slightly skinner as well, he noticed.

 _Am I suddenly aging_ backwards _?_ he thought. No, something else was happening. Utterly perplexed, Ben looked down at his legs and felt them with his hands. They felt unusually thin. He then noticed that his arms were thinner as well. He felt like some sort of stick figure.

He examined his body further, completely and utterly confused. Now something different was happening. He felt a tingle and a sensation as though thousands of insects were crawling all over his increasingly-itchy legs. He looked down and saw that the normally brownish hair lightly covering them appeared to be getting thicker and thicker, almost like fur. No, exactly like fur. It wasn't brown anymore, though, it was blue. The royal blue color became brighter and defined as more fur grew in at an alarming speed. He watched in horror, his breath failing to escape him, as it creeped all the way over his legs and feet, which were changing shape, too.

He felt prickling under his loosening basketball shorts and watched in the mirror as the blue fur appeared to climb up his back and around his neck and shoulders. His skin was becoming harder and harder to see with each passing second. Soon, his entire body was blanketed with a thick layer of short blue fur, except for a patch on his torso and his arms which remained bare, with a small amount of lighter hair covering them, like normal.

Ben stood in utter perplexity, staring at his lower body in the mirror. Afraid to look directly at his face, he began to grow hot, and suspicious he could guess at what was actually happening. He covered his face with his hands, not wanting to witness any more of this bizarre experience. Yet, he felt an itching on his forehead. His whole face in fact felt different under his fingers. Soon curiosity overcame his terror. He slowly opened his eyes and lowered his hands, looking back at himself in the full-length mirror.

He first noticed that something was weird with his eyes. He examined them, and then suddenly realized that instead of their normal brown they were bright green.

 _My eyes aren't green!_ he thought, panicking. He looked at his head as a whole. It seemed huge, or maybe that was just the effect of his hair because it was becoming thicker and longer, growing straight out the back of his head, changing color. The dark brown hair on top was becoming devoured by blue fur as well. He stared again at his eyes as they grew in size, becoming teardrop-shaped, slanting inwards. His newly green-irised pupils were becoming elongated in the process.

Ben felt something tickle his sinuses. He focused on his nose and saw it move and shrink. It began to curve upward, becoming shiny and black. It now stuck out of a small muzzle that his lower face was becoming. He stared at his nose in the mirror, and reached up to feel it with a finger. It was too bizarre.

His cheeks had remained skin-colored and bare, nearly like they were before, and his lips were smaller. His teeth and the inside of his mouth were different when Ben felt them with his tongue. His teeth felt slightly sharper, and his canines were just a tiny bit longer.

The rest of his face around his eyes felt itchy as it grew the same cobalt blue fur like the rest of himself. He reached up to scratch his temples and felt the coarse fur that now covered his forehead.

Too in awe, Ben noticed his ears begin to move. He felt them with his hands as his ears changed and slowly slid upwards, becoming pointy and triangular as they settled into their new position on top of his head. Blue fur covered the outside of them. He heard a popping noise inside his head and suddenly all sound became so much clearer. He could pick up all kinds of noises from inside the house. He heard his mom toss a dish into the kitchen sink downstairs, and a mouse somewhere in the walls of his bedroom.

Ben felt his head continuing to gradually gain weight and he panicked as the longer blue hairs on the back of his head stiffened and rose up to stick out, as though gallons of hairspray were being sprayed on them. It wasn't long before they became bristly cobalt spikes that clumped together, creating about six clumps protruding from his skull, each consisting of hundreds of the individual ones. He felt something weird with his upper back and turned his body to see better in the mirror. He saw more of those thicker pointy hairs growing out, which also clumped into two shapes almost like shark fins.

Ben moaned in panic and he felt the base of his spine being stretched, as if a hand had grabbed it and was pulling hard. He cried out in pain, and keeled forward, the new weight of his head off-setting his balance. He teetered and waved his arms in circles to try and prevent himself from falling over, but failed. Yet, instead of landing on his face he somehow ended up easily rolled into a ball on the floor.

 _How did I do that?_ Ben unclenched his arms from his blue-furred legs and stood back up unsteadily, not yet used to the different weight balance.

He felt something poking the seat of his pants. He let down his loose shorts and boxers which fell to the ground. Looking at his furry backside, he saw a short, pointy blue tail poking out from the base of his spine.

His feet and hands looked slightly disproportionately large compared to the rest of himself, but it didn't look bad. He was now completely devoid of clothing, but being petrified in awe and covered with fur, he wasn't worried about it.

Ben gaped in utter shock and bewilderment as all the changes seemed to come to a halt.

He stared wide-eyed at himself as a whole in the mirror, discombobulated at what had just happened. In his mind thoughts gushed through his head, too many to focus. From those thoughts he recalled that growing from his head and back were quills and that he had just completely changed species, but they quickly vanished as his mind became hazy.

It was then that Ben suddenly began to feel extremely light-headed, dizziness overpowering all thought. His sharper hearing now felt like it was being stifled by cotton, and he keeled forward on the floor, having fainted.

 **I hope you liked that so far! The next chapter will head in a completely different direction, but it will explain things, so keep checking for updates, or follow this story to easily receive email updates for each chapter. Thanks for reading, and I really hope you enjoyed it. I love reading reviews, so feel free to criticize all you want!**


	2. Schemes

Chapter 2: Schemes

 **2 Weeks Earlier**

The sunny slopes of the green hills stretched out as far as the eye could see before the ruins of an abandoned city. Here, a particular hedgehog was engaged in battle with a human. This was not the first time they had encountered. In fact, they had done this so often that Sonic was starting to wonder why Eggman never gave up his wild, fruitless efforts.

"You know you'll never catch me, Egghead!"

Sonic faced Doctor Eggman in his Eggmobile, which was currently fastened into a giant robot of unusual appearance, much like several of his previous creations. However, this one was also different than the rest. The Eggmobile was nestled inside the main structure of the machine, which was a large metal sphere topped with a glass dome. The sphere was attached to about twelve protrusions that stuck out of the body, like tentacles. Six of these limbs were attached like arms a bit higher on the body of the machine, and at the end of each was a pill-shaped, hedgehog-size glass capsule that opened and closed on a hinge. The remaining limbs of the robot worked like legs to mobilize the machine. It was pretty agile, but even Eggman knew it would never match up to that of his rival. However, his intentions were not quite the same this time around.

As Sonic examined the robot from a distance, he thought it was odd that he couldn't see anything built into the robot that could physically harm him. No blades, no flamethrowers, no guns. Usually his nemesis would put a little more effort into his work to try and inflict some damage. The only things Sonic knew he should probably worry about were the glass containers that opened and closed at the ends of the arms. He had no idea what Eggman was planning on doing with him if the evil scientist succeeded in capturing him, and he wasn't too keen to find out.

"You'll fail this time, hedgehog!" Eggman snarled.

"You say that every time!" Sonic exclaimed.

The doctor pushed a button on his console with a twisted grin. A tentacle came swiping toward the hedgehog with an open capsule awaiting its soon-to-be prisoner. Sonic easily dodged, rapidly somersaulting into the air in a spiny ball. The arm missed, and the hedgehog dashed mid-air, propelling himself to smash into the robot's glass and metal body. He failed to penetrate it with his sharp, razor-edge quills. He barely even made a scratch. Landing on the ground in a crouch like a ninja, Sonic groaned in slight frustration and confusion.

Suddenly, the rest of the tentacles began spinning around the entire contraption, gaining speed. Sonic accelerated with a burst of blue energy, sprinting around the contraption as the arms swiped one after the other, each narrowly missing. Eventually, it grew harder to keep track of the arms as they swung and lunged at alternating speeds and timing, trying to capture the blue blur in their capsules. Sonic nearly began to lose his laser focus. It was almost too much. Yet for some reason, the arms eventually began to slow their rotation and eventually came to a stop, as if Eggman was giving up. Sonic slowed himself, and jogged to a stop with his hands on his hips. He gave a breath of relief that he had succeeded in dodging them all before he tripped up his amazingly precise footing.

One of the arms on Eggman's robot took this opportunity to swipe at Sonic while his guard was down, like netting a butterfly, but the hedgehog's reflexes were ready for it and he used his slender, yet powerful legs to vault himself to the top of the glass dome of the machine, above Eggman's bald head. This was his mistake. Suddenly, all of the mechanical arms tore upward simultaneously, then they struck down on him like metal cobras. Sonic had no hope of escape as one managed to snap him shut in its glass capsule in the blink of an eye.

"Ha ha ha ha! How do you like my Captobot, rodent? Sorry. I didn't have time to think up a better name for it. You can eat up all of your petty remarks because I have just captured the 'fastest thing alive'!" gloated Doctor Eggman. "Well, looks like you just weren't fast enough!"

"I don't mind you talking so much as long as you don't mind me not listening," replied Sonic, who was casually leaning against the side of his container with his arms crossed. "Say, what can you possibly do with me in this thing anyway?"

Eggman grimaced at his foe. "I know you're tricks, Sonic. You can't get me to reveal my plans this time." He then placed a gloved hand on a joystick on his control panel. He then proceeded to vigorously shake the capsule encasing Sonic up and down. The hedgehog was jarred out of his relaxed behavior and banged up and down furiously against the sides of his container until the scientist stopped. Sonic fell to the bottom, shook his large, quilled head, hoping to clear his dizziness. He slowly stood back up, wobbling from the movement of the compartment, and glared at Eggman, who jeered.

Then, Sonic curled up and jumped into a spinning blue ball of razor-sharp spikes, slamming himself again and again against the glass, hoping to buzz through it. But to no avail; he was trapped. Sonic still wasn't too worried. He knew that eventually he'd be able to break through the glass before the doctor carted him away to his lab for experiments on him or whatever. After all, what would Eggman possibly do to fatally harm him in that ridiculous machine?

"Don't you worry, Sonic, I'll set you free just as soon as I'm finished with you," called the scientist. Sonic stopped spinning around wildly. _What? He would set me free?_

Eggman grinned an chuckled with a mad glee. He looked at his control pad covered with his delightful buttons in front of him. Seeing his target, he raised an arm high, and punched his finger into a big yellow one with a label reading 'Suction'.

Sonic suddenly heard a very loud humming noise coming from where the arm was attached to the glass containing him. A nozzle opened up from the metal and a strong gust of force started pulling Sonic toward it like dust threatened by a vacuum. He pushed his arms and feet against the edges of the glass, doing everything he could to stop himself from being pulled near it, but the force was too strong and the hedgehog was yanked backward by the suction from the opening of the arm. He was held there by a section of his back, arms flailing and pushing wildly, trying to lodge himself away. His quills were ruffled, and a few had gotten themselves caught inside of the opening, and he felt some being torn away from his skin. He cried out in pain, knowing that his quills weren't ever very lenient when tugged. He heard them rattle as they shot through the hose that was the arm. The suction ceased and the hero fell down against the bottom of his containment. He moaned from the resulting pain, and with his gloved fingers felt his back underneath his head quills; a few were missing from the two fin-like bunches on his back, along with a patch of fur where the nozzle was clamped on with the suction.

His hands fell and supported his weight against the glass as he uncharacteristically tried to control his heavy breathing.

"Ha ha ha, success!" Eggman joyfully exclaimed. He was now holding the quills in his fist that he had extracted from his rival. He pushed another button and the capsule containing Sonic opened up and dropped him forcefully onto the grassy earth of the slope they stood on. Sonic looked upwards at the sky and at Eggman's "Captobot" (well he couldn't have called it "Suckotron 9000", now could he?) which was now moving itself briskly on its clawed supportive legs, away from sight. Sonic sighed, knowing it was no use chasing after him though he knew he was more than capable. But in his current state he thought that he should probably take it easy for a while. He recovered a little before picking himself up, turning, and speeding towards home to inform Tails about the latest incident.

* * *

Back at his lair, Doctor Eggman was rejoicing. He knew his plan would work out perfectly. All he had needed was a bit of fresh DNA sampling from Sonic for him to begin work on his future schemes, and he was delighted to obtain it in the way he planned-painfully. He yearned to create the ultimate weapon, one that would match Sonic's speed, strength, and skill to finally and permanently bring down that hedgehog that had ruined his life. But what to create, he thought to himself. He possessed the means of extracting the very chaotic essence of Sonic from these few samples, and he wanted to make good use of this opportunity. He suddenly had an epiphany.

"Orbot, Cubot!" he loudly called out through his lair in his rough voice.

"On my way, boss!" after a while yelled the certain square-designed Cubot that came hovering into the room.

"Yes, your most despicableness?" Orbot's softer voice followed as the red sphere-shaped head came bobbing up as well to greet its master.

Eggman looked at them both and then reached down and clapped his hands down on either side of their heads, slamming them into each other. The robots exclaimed loudly from the force and the noise.

"Ah, glad to know that you two buffoons both have working audio sensors. Next time you dawdle I won't be so merciful to you dolts. But before I loose my train of thought, answer me this: what do you two know about the phrase, 'Fighting fire with fire'?" Eggman inquired.

"Oh, an interesting perspective, sir. Wouldn't it revolve around the idea to snuff out a flame with a new flame?" said Orbot respectably, rubbing the side of his head where it hit Cubot's, purely by default, for it hadn't actually hurt.

"But sir, what does that have to do with defeating Sonic?" Cubot queried.

"Glad you asked!" said Eggman. "You see, it seems as though the only good chances I've had against Sonic the Hedgehog have only been with Shadow and Metal Sonic. Yet, neither of them quite match up to his abilities in the same way. Don't ever tell Shadow I said that. He's not one of us anymore, anyway. It seems as though the only true hope we have at successfully beating that pesky rodent once and for all would be if we had the same exact advantages. Anything more could be turned against us."

Orbot appeared to be slightly uncomfortable. "But if you don't mind my asking, sir, how come you didn't just keep Sonic when you captured him in your machine?"

The increasingly frustrated Eggman gave him a hard kick, sending him crashing into the back wall of the room. "You idiot! It's because he would have escaped by the time I brought him back here! That glass casing wasn't made to hold him _forever_ ," he explained with exasperation. "Now, for my plan. I'd need someone expendable, someone who won't expect a thing, a perfect pawn for my experiment."

Eggman thought back to his own world, where he originally came from. Earth was just a couple of dimensions away. He had learned how to travel across dimensions after that whole Chaos Control fiasco he had gone through previously (Sonic X). There were loads of generous humans who could lend their will to him, he was sure. They were easier to control than Mobians, anyway. He remembered that when he had gone back to visit Earth a few years after his time there, he had come to find that a couple decades had passed and the human inhabitants had continued to use Sonic the Hedgehog as an icon. He had found stores selling small cases with his name and picture on them. He had asked what they were all about, only to find that the humans were now using him as a major character in video games. _Yeesh, can't those people ever have enough of that hedgehog?_ he had thought.

Back in the present, Eggman thought to himself: _Yes, perfect. I'll use someone who has a bond with Sonic, but who has bonded through their video games. Then they'll already have knowledge of this world that I can use to more easily take control of their mind! That obnoxious Chris fellow has already been long grown up by now, I'm sure. I can't use him. I'll just choose whoever has a consistent history with purchasing those video games, and who has the best-fitting build out of those fanatics. Yes, that's what I'll do._

And with that, Eggman gleefully ran off to his large mainframe computer and got to work hacking Earth's internet, leaving Orbot and Cubot startled by his sudden departure.

 **Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think and what you are expecting out of this story. What plotholes should I clear up? What characters do you want to see? Again, thanks for reading, reviewing, and adding this story to your favorites so that you can get updates for each chapter!**


	3. Emotional States

Chapter 3: Emotional States

 **2 Weeks Later**

Ben opened his eyes and groaned. There was something wrong, but he couldn't recall what exactly. His whole body ached. _What time is it?_ he thought. _I feel more miserable than when usually waking up in the mornings._

Lying on his stomach, he turned his head to the left, hoping to see the alarm clock on his bedside table. Instead, he saw carpet, and a leg of a dresser right in front of his face.

 _What? I'm on the floor,_ he realized. _What a weird night it must have been._

He moved to stand up. As he did so, he thought he saw a flash of blue near his legs. Looking again, he automatically assumed that he was wearing really distinctively blue skinny jeans, but still groggy, it just seemed all wrong.

 _Wait a minute..._

His mind immediately woke up and he jumped up into a standing position, freaking out. His legs and feet were covered with fur! Bright, royal blue fur. His feet had four toes each and looked a bit like paws. He twisted around in panic and looked at the rest of himself. His sides were also fur-covered, and looking back he saw a short pointy tail growing from his butt.

He reached up to feel his head. Touching the sides of his scalp with both hands, Ben expected to feel his ears. They weren't where he expected to feel them, and he almost passed out again. Feeling a bit higher, he finally found the two pointed triangular shapes where he was hearing out of. He ran his hands to feel the back of his head, but they just kept going back, feeling large pointed protrusions growing where his short hair should be.

Deciding to let his eyes again confirm these anomalies, Ben turned to the mirror on his closet door.

All he could do was stand and stare at himself. There, looking back at him in the mirror, wide eyed, was Sonic the Hedgehog.

Ben gaped at the mirror and blinked. Sonics eye's blinked as well. He used newly-voluntarily muscles and turned his pointed ears inwards and out, and shook out his hands. He then pinched himself in the arm to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. He turned his head from side to side, making the large quill bunches in the back swing back and forth. Then he stopped.

"No. No. This isn't happening, this isn't real," he said softly to himself when he had pinched hard enough to convince himself that he was awake. His voice came out different than his own, surprising him. It was Sonic's voice, like the voice he had come to know and become familiar with while shut in the basement with the tv screen and the game console. Oddly intrigued, he began testing it out a little more.

"Helloooo there, nice to meeet you," he said to no one, thinking he'd never be able to get used to the new sound that escaped his mouth."Woah, this is weird." It was like going through the pubescent voice change for the second time, only much more suddenly.

Ben looked around and deduced that he was about three feet tall, his eye level just higher than the bed. He scrunched and un-scrunched his face back at the mirror, familiarizing himself a little more making different facial expressions. He reached up and felt his nose. It was small and stuck straight out of his face. His outlandishly huge eyes crossed slightly trying to look at it. Then he blinked and took a deep breath in overall astonishment to try and wrap his mind around this.

Sonic had been somewhat of an idol to him. He was always his first choice character when it came to gaming, and now this unbelievable, unthinkable occurrence just so happened to slap Ben in the face. _Something like this doesn't just happen! I've freaking turned into Sonic the Hedgehog!_ he thought.

Suddenly, a huge migraine hit him like lightning from a storm, and Ben felt as though his skull was going to crack open from the burst of pain. His head pounded and he reached up to clutch it, and instead got poked in the hands by a couple stray quills protruding from his head.

"Ouch!" he exclaimed, sounding a bit louder this time. He reflexes caused him to jerk his hands away from his head, and he stumbled backwards against his bed frame and fell to the ground on his hands and knees, breathing heavily. He tightly squeezed his green eyes shut.

"Ben? Is something wrong up there?" came the distant call of his mom's voice from the kitchen.

He panicked. Pushing away the searing pain, he turned toward his closed door and called in a voice as close to his own as possible, "It's nothing!" _Hopefully it fools her into not coming upstairs to investigate._ Ben couldn't even imagine his mom's reaction if she saw a spiky blue humanoid creature on the floor of her son's bedroom, let alone if she found out that that spiky blue thing was her son.

He collapsed facedown for the third time on the carpet of his small bedroom, close to tears from his bursting headache. He knew it would be an odd sight to see the ever-famous heroic hedgehog be doing.

Ben's screaming head eventually numbed and the pain slowly ebbed away, leaving him breathless and relieved. Once he collected himself, he sat up on the floor and leaned his head against the side of his bed. The longer quills flattened against his back a bit, providing a sort of cushioning as he laid there.

Ben thought about this situation, still unable to truly process or believe what had happened. If he told his mom, she would have a freak heart attack and/or think she was going crazy and enroll herself in a mental institution. Letting her find out was not an option. She would eventually discover Ben if he stayed in the house, so he had to find some way to sneak out without her noticing him, but where would he go? Ben had no clue if him turning into a mutant blue hedgehog was something permanent, or if this was all just in his head. It felt real enough, but he couldn't just abandon his life and leave his mom who was having stressful dealings already. He loved her to the ends of the earth, even though she hadn't been completely there for him lately. He loved his dad the same though he wasn't home most of the day. On the other hand his dad would most likely get a broom and swat him out of the house like, well, a rodent, before Ben could even explain his new appearance, which only furthered his need to get out and away from his parents ever finding out what happened to him.

 _Jared!_ Ben suddenly thought. His best friend would understand. Both of Jared's parents worked during the day and his older sisters were moved out or in college, so his situation at home was not unlike his own. Ben hoped that Jared would be able to help him find out more about his predicament, and if not at least he might have someone to talk to and understand him. It was only about an hour and a half after school had gotten out. Jared was sure to be home, so that's where Ben decided to go.

He stood up, wobbling backwards a little, still not used the new weight-balance of his quills. His whole body felt hot and his muscles felt stiff and tender. It was so bizarre not being taller than the dresser close to his bed. He felt like a little kid again, being the size that he was.

Yet Ben also felt a kind of newfound strength, and he vaulted his light body up onto his bed and over to the window which the bed's head was positioned underneath. This was the only window in his room, and the only exit other than the door. Ben looked down. It was a straight drop down to the driveway below with no roof under the window that he could crawl onto, but it was his only option.

He unlocked the latches, opened the window, and worked the screen out of the frame, tossing it behind him onto his bed. He placed a timid, bare foot on the edge of the windowsill and leaned out, ducking his large quilled head while continuing to look down. His eyes widened as he fully realized what he was about to do. He'd seen Sonic perform amazing feats in the games, jumping and falling long distances without injuring himself. If Ben's hopes were true that it wasn't just game mechanics, he might be able to land uninjured if he did it right.

It was then that Ben became fully aware that he wasn't wearing any clothes. He looked down at his bare tan chest, and then figured that if all that Sonic wore were socks, shoes, and gloves, then it should be fine to go without pants. They wouldn't fit him anymore anyway, and he was covered with fur. He felt no real urgency to wear anything. It was, however, odd to see Sonic in the mirror minus gloves and shoes as he'd never been shown taking them off before.

Gradually mustering up his courage, Ben got ready to drop down. Normally he wasn't one to take huge risks, but he was willing to do this for the sake of his skin and his family. Plus, he was a teenage boy.

Unexpectedly, Ben's pointed ears pricked up and turned toward the newest noise. He heard a rhythmic thumping sound coming from a distance outside his door. It was his mom coming up the stairs! She was probably on her way to make sure nothing was going on, as Ben would usually have gone back downstairs to play video games after school. He heard each footstep as they got closer and closer to his bedroom door.

Ben panicked and decided it was now or never. He had to jump. He swung his arms forward to propel himself out the window as his legs gave a powerful kick off the sill, just as he heard his mom opening the door to his bedroom.

"Ben?" he heard her call. But that wasn't what was currently worrying itself through his mind at the moment. What Ben was thinking was, _Aaaaaaahhhhhhhh!_

He instantly regretted not turning to hold the ledge and dropping down, for he had jumped higher than he expected himself to, meaning that the fall would be even farther. He landed hard on his feet on the concrete below, managing to bend his skinny blue knees to support his fall. He recovered quite quickly. It was a lot less painful than Ben was expecting.

Thinking that his mom would look out the window any second and see him, Ben thought quickly and decided to hide around the corner of the house. "Woaaah!" Ben exclaimed as his legs immediately moved, taking him, barely before he could process it, to a clump of bushes around the other side of the garage. He nearly slammed into the outside wall in the process, but a bush stopped him instead. He had momentarily forgotten how fast Sonic the Hedgehog could move, and didn't exactly expect himself to be able to look like him in the first place, let alone have his same speed. He really needed to test exactly what he was now capable of.

* * *

Kara Gardner heard a thump somewhere outside as she opened the door to her son's bedroom. The first thing she noticed was that he wasn't in the room. "Ben?" she called out. Then she noticed that the window above his bed was hanging frighteningly open with the screen lying on the bed next to it. "Ben!" She was suddenly very panicked. _Has my son just jumped out of the window?_

She rushed over to it and peered down from on top his bed. She thought she saw a glint of something bright blue in the corner of her vision. She thought it was a trick of her mind when she peered further and saw nothing. _What could move that fast anyway?_ She briefly disregarded it and darted her eyes around frantically, but couldn't see her son anywhere. "Ben!" she called out a third time. _What on earth would give him a reason to run away?_ She thought she was an exceptionally ordinary mom, and was lenient whenever she could be. She would always let him go to his friends' houses if he had his homework done, and he had nearly unlimited freedom when it came to eating and screen time. She was just always afraid that Ben would leave her if things got rough between her and Andrew, her husband.

 _Have we frightened him enough to think that we would get a divorce, perhaps? Is that why he would run away?_

She and Andrew had had a tough time around each other lately. He was just always gone, and she didn't know exactly how much time he spent at work and how much he spent doing other things. Their relationship with each other was lacking a bit of trust, and that brought them to often fight over the smallest things.

As Kara pondered what to do, she realized that she could try to call Ben to make sure he was alright before involving anyone else. She quickly took out her phone from her pocket and tapped his name in her favorites list. It rang, and a couple seconds later she jumped when she heard some 80's light rock tune in the bedroom, indicating that Ben's cell phone was in his backpack, which she saw next to his bed on the floor.

 _Why would he leave his phone and all of his things?_ She thought. Something very strange was going on. Kara right then decided she would call the police after searching the house and neighborhood, because she wouldn't know what else to do alone if she found out if her only son was kidnapped.

 **What will Kara do? What do you think will happen to Ben? Thanks for reading and don't forget to review and subscribe by adding this story to your favorites!**


	4. Best Friend

Chapter 4: Best Friend

 **Earlier**

Doctor Eggman sat in his main control room, eating a chocolate chip muffin and contemplating how the progress of his Microbots was going. He was so proud of his idea to create a copy of Sonic the Hedgehog using another organism instead of just making another robot to be destroyed. His excitement was only growing about having a perfect version of Sonic that would actually obey his every command with mind control instead of one that was intent on mocking his work and showing off at any opportunity he got.

He also knew that Sonic was too cowardly to ever fatally harm another person.

The evil genius finished his snack and turned back to his mainframe computer. Typing speedily, he accessed the video feed from his minuscule creations. His screen fragmented into several different perspectives and he could monitor the visuals from a number of the Microbots as they performed their work.

Each of them was flowing through parts of his subject's bloodstream, aiming at each individual or group of cells and altering them using special electric charges of the hedgehog's DNA from the quills he'd acquired before. They worked at top speed, changing cells and atoms in the blink of an eye as they traveled through the veins and arteries, creating the exact replica of the hedgehog's DNA.

Eggman knew the outside appearance of the boy would be changing in the process, and his entire physical makeup.

Once they were finished with the procedure, the Microbots would then begin altering the brain into becoming a robot-like slave that would act to do his bidding, something he felt he was quite good at forcing others to do, all except for that darned blue pineapple.

He was fascinated, and watched the screens intently as the robots finished up their work over the course of about a half hour, anticipating when they would reach the brain.

"It's time," Eggman uttered to no one but himself as he expected the robots to head into the brain center.

Suddenly, one of the screens turned off. Soon another blackened its surface.

"What?" he exclaimed. He watched in confusion and despair as one by one each camera was shut off by an unknown force.

He sat up and moved quickly, earnestly pressing and repressing buttons on his control panel to try and get the feed to turn back on. If he didn't succeed, Eggman would have no way of knowing if the process had continued or if the Microbots would succeed in teleporting the boy to Mobius using the artificial form of Chaos Control that he had discovered in the recent past. He would have to send alternate robots to retrieve the subject in case he didn't arrive at the expected time.

 _Why does something like this always have to go wrong?_ thought the scientist. He was fed up with defeat. If he didn't achieve his sworn goal of finishing Sonic off soon, he felt he would have no further reason to continue on with his existence.

* * *

 **Later**

From Ben's position around the corner of the driveway, he heard his mother leave from inside his room and proceed down the staircase, presumably to call the cops on his disappearance. His heart eventually slowed from beating a million times per second due to the thrilling escape he had just pulled off. He eyed his neighborhood, and imagined what would happen if anyone saw him walking down the street to his friend's place in this state, yet he was a little too apprehensive to try and run just yet. He didn't know exactly how he would prevent himself from smashing in his face into the side of a house if he went too fast.

Taking another look around, Ben timidly started walking down his driveway and onto the asphalt. His bare padded feet hurt a little from the heat and on the occasional rocks that jabbed them, and he found himself wishing he had a pair of those snazzy red and white sneakers that Sonic always wore. He moved over by the sidewalk and began walking on the grass instead, which felt better.

 _What on earth caused this to happen anyway? Was it even from earth? And why? Does the real Sonic exist somewhere, or did I somehow become him because he doesn't exist anymore? Am I taking his place or something? Was this some type of magic?_ Random thoughts like these raced through his head as he walked on.

Thankfully, he saw no neighbors out and about today. It was just too hot to really enjoy the outdoors, and that especially affected Ben as he began to pant, almost like a dog but with less slobber and tongue. He assumed that hedgehogs probably didn't have sweat glands because his body felt rather dry instead of hot and sticky. To be a completely different species was so strange and unthinkable-otherworldly; and for the hundredth time Ben wondered how this impossibility happened at all.

He stopped when he came to a roundabout in the neighborhood, possessing the strong desire to find a way to cool himself off.

 _If I try it here, I won't have anything to bump into,_ he thought as he contemplated his options. Readying himself, he crouched down slightly into a runner's starting position.

 _Well, its now or never._ He pushed off with his toes and started running around the roundabout, gaining more and more acceleration as his feet soon seemed to skim over the pavement. It was a lot easier than he had thought.

The wind whipped him in the face and roared in his triangular ears, his new quills straightened out behind him from the wind resistance. He kept an eye on the curving road ahead, concentrating on his footing as his legs became a blur. Energy pulsated from his body, and because of that he was forming a glowing blue ring around the traffic circle from an outsider's point of view.

The world was going by so quickly that Ben knew that he shouldn't be able to process what he was passing, yet his large eyes helped him focus and he could control his movements as easily as if he were walking. He should have been running out of energy by now, but he never felt the burn in his legs that he was expecting or the pain in his lungs from being short of breath. It was the most amazing and exhilarating feeling Ben had ever felt, and he let his arms fling out behind him as he felt completely cooled off and sailed into the constant left turn.

After deciding he had gotten the hang of this, still running, Ben pulled himself out of the circle and changed his direction to proceed to Jared's house while never once slowing his momentum. He turned left and right down streets as easily as turning his head. Sheer power and energy surged through his legs, never faltering.

He arrived at the destination in seconds and stopped his feet abruptly into a hard skid, stumbling into the grass. He saw that he had left long black marks on the driveway. His feet felt almost unbearably hot and sore from the asphalt, and he knew that he would need to get a pair of shoes that would be friction-resistant, somehow. But that's a problem he'd deal with later.

Ben was skeptical, but he hoped no one had seen him long enough to care or even recognize him. When he had come to a complete stop he caught his breath and shook out his legs a bit, amazed that they now held power on another level, like a superhero. He felt as amazing as the Flash. He was so pumped up he felt like yelling. He then realized that he was not as amazing as the Flash, but as Sonic the Hedgehog.

Breath quickly escaped Ben's mouth and tingles rushed through his body as he realized what he was about to do next. How was he to know if his best friend would understand this? What would Jared think of his bro going through this unbelievable, impossible change? Yet Ben really needed someone to talk to, to help him analyze his situation. He couldn't deal with this alone.

Mustering up the courage to walk around the side of the one-story, cream-painted house was harder to do than Ben thought. Yet he trudged up anyway, through the dry grass and to the side where he knew Jared's window was positioned.

He experimented with his options in his mind. He ended up reaching up and vaulting himself onto the windowsill. Peering through the cracks in the blinds, he could see his friend laying across his twin-sized bed playing a gameboy. Ben rapped his hand a few times against the glass, immediately regretting this decision.

He succeeded in getting Jared's attention.

Jared looked up, slightly startled, only to see a large, bluish silhouette behind the blinds. With an utterly confused look on his face he got up off of his bed, went over to the window, and pulled the string to slide up the plastic that was restricting his view.

When he saw Sonic the Hedgehog crouching on the windowsill, his heart skipped several beats as he jumped back from shock.

What he was seeing, was a fictional, video game character. On his windowsill.

 _On HIS windowsill._

He rubbed his eyes like one would in a cartoon and looked again. A bewildered expression shone on Jared's face and Ben's sensitive ears heard him say, "What? Is this for REAL?!"

Sonic nodded briskly to Jared through the glass, and motioned for him to open the window.

Hesitantly, but still awestruck, Jared proceeded to unlock the latch and pulled upwards for it to open. The easily-identifiable blue character slid his slim body through the opening and landed lightly on the carpeted floor. He immediately spoke:

"Alright, you might find this extremely hard to believe, but try to keep an open mind. I'm-"

"You're Sonic!?" Jared interrupted.

"Yes, I mean no, I'm-"

"As in the hedgehog, with super speed!?"

"Well, if you let me expl-"

"How can you be HERE? You're a video game character!"

"Jared!"

The named friend stopped abruptly. He stared. Then stated, "How the HECK do you know my name?"

The blue hedgehog took a breath, "Ben!" he said awkwardly.

"How do you know Ben's?!"

"No! I mean I'M Ben!"

"Ben?" Jared stumbled backwards and sat on the edge of his bed, looking down with wide eyes at what claimed to be his friend. "How-" he faltered, scanning him over. "How are you looking like that? Is it a costume or something?"

"No it's not, it's all real," Ben said. "See?" He reached up and pulled out one of his long, thin, cobalt blue quills from his head. He flinched with pain as it detached. He held it out to Jared. "That hurt a lot more than I thought it would."

Jared took it from him. He held the genuine quill up close and examined it. Then he got off his bed and went over to examine Ben's body more closely. He pinched one of his furry triangular ears.

"Ouch! Don't do that!" Ben protested. He swiped Jared's hand away, his ear twitching involuntarily, like a cat's.

"You really felt that?" he asked, intrigued.

"Yes!"

"Do you feel when I do this?" he lightly pinched one of Ben's shoulders.

"Yes..." his increasingly-annoyed friend replied, crossing his arms and tapping a foot as Jared continued to feel the fur that covered his head. After a few more moments the only human in the room sat back down on the bed, never taking his eyes off of Ben's new appearance.

Jared ran a hand through his dirty-blonde hair, then asked, "But how and why did you turn into Sonic? You even have his voice!"

"I don't know," Ben exasperatedly said. "I was opening up a letter in my room that I found in the mail for me and then I started feeling really weird and it really hurt. Then I couldn't feel anything for a while. The next thing I know is that I'm getting skinnier and shorter by the minute, growing blue fur and spikes, and turning into what happens to be our favorite video game character!"

"This is too bizarre," Jared said, shaking his head.

"YOU think it's bizarre? Imagine not even being human anymore," Ben brought to his

friend's realization. "Imagine looking in the mirror and not seeing your own face, but a face that belongs to someone else, and your face is just GONE."

That silenced his friend. "I can't," came his words. Then, after several moments, "Though, you do look really cool."

The corners of Ben's mouth broke out into the same smile that was all too familiar on the face of Sonic. Jared smiled at the sight of that smile. Then they burst out laughing uncontrollably like a couple of teenage girls.

"Dude, it's amazing!" Ben said in between gasps.

Once they calmed down Jared paused, then perked up. "Ben, if you look like Sonic..." His eyes went even wider than before, if that was even possible. "Oh. My. Gosh. Does that mean you can run as fast as him, too?"

Ben pursed his lips, and his large, curved eyes looked up at Jared with a very sly-looking edge to them. "Come on, I need to show you something," he then said mysteriously. They got up and Ben jumped and vaulted headfirst through the previously-opened window, rolling into his landing when he hit the ground. Indescribably excited, Jared followed, sliding headfirst through the opening and landing awkwardly onto the grass, not nearly as smoothly as his smaller friend had, but he didn't care. Ben led them to the street where he looked around for cars or people. It was a good thing the neighborhood was generally a quiet one.

"Okay, ready?" Ben said to Jared. The latter nodded enthusiastically. "Watch this."

Ben bent down slightly, building up the potential energy, then took off down the street, a blue blur as fast as a speeding bullet.

Jared cried, "Woah!" as a current of air blasted past him and he heard Ben's voice yell "Whoo-hoo!" as he ran, just like the character sounded in the video games. Jared saw the glowing blue aura that was his friend make u-turn when he got as far down the street as he could before going out of sight. Ben came closer and closer and began to slow down enough that Jared could actually see his legs individually as they alternated one foot in front of the other at such an unnatural pace. Both of the teenagers' hearts were performing flips as they witnessed this phenomenal experience, and when Ben finally slowed to a stop he wasn't out of breath in the least, which was a bit hard for both of them to comprehend.

"That was so FREAKING awesome, man," Jared told him. "I can't even imagine having an endless supply of that much energy. It just doesn't make sense!"

"I know! Sonic is the definition of impossible," Ben agreed. "I don't get how he can do those spin-dashes, either. I mean, the gravity would just pull him down, right? And he shouldn't be able to get any momentum to fling himself towards anything while in the air."

Suddenly, there was a flash of light behind Ben.

"Dude, you should try it sometime..." Jared word's faltered as he seemed to be suddenly distracted by what had just appeared behind his now shorter friend. "Umm, Ben, look behind you," he said, pointing, with a hint of nervousness behind his voice.

"What?" Ben said, turning on the spot.

There, hovering in the air were two metal robots, bearing the insignia of someone unpleasantly familiar.

 **How was Jared's reaction? How would you have reacted to any of it? Thanks for liking this story and adding it to your favorites so that you can follow the chapter updates!**


	5. Kidnapped

Chapter 5: Kidnapped

* * *

"Umm...Ben..."

The two friends stared at the pair of robots hovering in front of them.

One of them was mostly red and the other yellow. The yellow one had a box-shaped head and a base with two arms sticking out from its body. The red one was similar only with a spherical head and a round base. They were closing in on the two teens.

"Aren't those...Orbot and Cubot, from the Sonic games? What the heck?" Jared said.

"Yeah..." Ben recalled that these guys were usually pretty harmless. Even with Doctor Eggman, these two were utter idiots and couldn't go one hour without messing something up.

"Benjamin Gardner, you are needed in Doctor Eggman's lair," said Orbot in an echoey, metallic-sounding voice.

"What's going on?" Ben asked.

Instead of answering, they descended and lunged, grabbing each of Ben's arms, and lifted him up in the air before he could even process what was happening.

"Ben!" Jared exclaimed.

"Ahhhh!" Ben yelled as Eggman's hench-bots lifted him up higher and higher. His legs were wilding thrashing around, hoping to break free from their grip.

Then, there was a second bright flash of light and Jared witnessed: his friend, who had turned into Sonic the Hedgehog, Orbot, and Cubot, both belonging to the sinister Doctor Eggman who didn't exist, all disappearing into thin air.

"Could this day get any more insane?" he said to no one, staring at the blue quill he still had clutched in his hand.

* * *

"Ahhhh!"

Ben continued screaming and protesting. The robots lifted him up into the air. Then, Orbot pressed something that he was holding in one metal hand, and next all he saw was white. His lungs compressed from force of air pressure and he shut his eyes, terrified at what was going on. The next thing he knew, his feet were touching the ground and his lungs could breathe again. He hesitantly opened his eyes.

He wasn't in front of Jared's house anymore, that was for sure. Orbot and Cubot let him go before Ben could use the expanse of metal walls to determine where exactly he was and they thrust him into a prison-like cell with thick metal bars, slamming the also-barred door shut. From the floor of the cell, Ben's hedgehog ears heard large bolts on the inside of the prison's door frame locking him in. Then the two robots briskly exited the premises.

Ben stood up and came up to the bars, peering through at what seemed to be a large laboratory. It was littered with shelves, stacks of equipment, and piles of metal scraps and parts. He could automatically tell from all the insignias of a grinning face with a mustache that he was in the lair of Doctor Eggman, the main villain of nearly all the Sonic franchises.

"This can't be real," Ben said to himself. These were all fictional characters.

"Oh, it's real all right, Benjamin," came a sinister voice from a nearby hallway veering off from the room. Booted footsteps were heard as the main villain of the Sonic franchise walked into the lab.

Eggman's hands were behind his back and he slowly approached the cell in which Ben was standing, staring up at the potbellied, overweight human. He looked exactly how Ben imagined Eggman would look in real life, not the pixelated or CGI versions from the games. It was the same way Ben himself looked like the realistic version of modern Sonic the Hedgehog.

The evil scientist was in his usual red, yellow, and white uniform with black pants and huge feet. His dark blue glasses/goggles/whatever-they-were concealed his eyes, giving him a menacing stare, but his comically long, bristly, orangey-brown mustache was the main focal point of his towering frame.

"How is this even possible?" Ben asked in the voice of Sonic.

"I'm impressed. My Microbots actually managed to do the job right, if I do say so myself," exclaimed Eggman. "You look and sound just as annoying as that meddlesome hedgehog, Sonic."

"Y-You mean Sonic is real, too?" Ben sputtered.

"Of course! Don't you humans remember when those rodents and I Chaos Controlled to your ridiculous planet?"

"I-I don't-I've just heard stories, and played video games."

"Yes, I'm well aware of your history with the games. Hm, time really does travel faster in your dimension," the evil scientist stroked his mustache with a gloved hand. "But enough talking. Now that you're here, I have a job for you to do, slave. But first..." Eggman brought out from behind his back two white gloves, and a pair of shiny red and white shoes with golden buckles. He tossed them through the bars of the cell. "...customary attire," he finished.

Ben looked at the gloves and shoes, recognizing them immediately as the same ones Sonic wore. He put on the socks that were stuffed inside of the footwear, and then slipped on the shoes themselves and buckled them. They fit perfectly. Lastly putting on the gloves, he figured, _Why not? Gloves are normal here, I guess._ Standing up, he now looked exactly like the real Sonic.

Eggman grinned slyly, then pulled out a small device from his pocket. A large red button (Eggman's favorite,) stuck out from its metal panel. He pointed it at Ben's face, pressing the button with his thumb.

Ben flinched. He expected something dangerous to come flying out at him from somewhere. After a few moments of nothing happening at all, he opened his eyes, confused, but said nothing.

Eggman seemed to think that the remote thing did whatever it was supposed to, and he stuck it in his pocket, approaching until he was just inches away from the bars of the cell. He cleared his throat, and then said in an official voice like that of an army general, "Experimental Subject 1186, Anti-Sonic Clone." He paused. "Priority 1: destroy Sonic the Hedgehog."

 **What does Eggman plan to do with Ben? Thanks for reading and reviewing this chapter! I hope you enjoyed it! Please comment if you have any questions or if there's anything that I can further explain.**


	6. Assignment

Chapter 6: Assignment

* * *

Ben stared at the scientist as his mind only began to fathom what he had just said. _Destroy Sonic the Hedgehog? What? Did Eggman expect me to obey just like that?_

Then, it clicked inside his head like a switch. _That's what the weird remote's button was for! Eggman must have tried to turn me into a slave through mind control! But if Eggman finds out that for some reason it didn't work, he'll do something to my head to make sure that it does, and that would be bad._

Ben did only what he thought would be best. He straightened up and said to the doctor in a serious tone, "Yes, Doctor Eggman."

"Good," Eggman said with a sinister smile. "I now have you under my power." Satisfied with the response, he reached into another pocket and pulled out a second remote. He pushed the button in the middle of it and the doors of the cell clanged open.

Ben couldn't believe his luck. He was already free. But he didn't dare take action just yet.

"Because you are his copy, Sonic shouldn't be hard to recognize. When you find him, make sure to bring him to me alive so I can end his world and make him suffer long and hard. He deserves it," Eggman said spitefully. "Now go." He looked Ben long and hard in the eyes. Ben could almost see a gleam of hatred beyond the scientist's soulless glasses, and knew just how badly Eggman wanted this to succeed.

Ben realized that this might be his only chance of escape, for he was terrified out of his mind at what the future would hold if he stayed in the hands of this madman. Yet he knew he needed to be careful about his actions so that Eggman didn't suspect his secret free will.

Pretending to depart to fulfill Eggman's orders, Ben saluted and began to make his way out of the cell. He broke into a very tentative, cautious jog towards the corridor leading out, moving pleasingly farther and farther away from the lab. Nothing tried to stop him, which was a relief beyond measure, and once he went out of Eggman's view he broke into a medium-paced run, his quills bouncing slightly and his new shoes pattering against the concrete floor of the hall.

Ben began searching for an exit, not wanting to increase his speed as to slam into any walls. He passed many rooms full of strange equipment and machinery, pipes and twisted pieces of robots that repelled any curiosity from Ben's mind about their uses.

After many twists and turns, he finally saw a large pair of heavy metal doors ahead. He stopped in front of them and pushed them open with some effort. Yet he was still impressed with the strength his new body now possessed, for he didn't think that he would even be able to budge these doors an inch if he was his regular self.

Stepping outside into the sunlight, Ben blinked his large eyes and squinted at his surroundings. His jaw dropped open as he peered out at a rocky, barren wasteland, but beyond he saw a bright blue, cloudless sky, and rolling hills of lush green grass with a soft number of palm trees, flowers, and bushes speckling the landscape.

Ben stepped out and the enormous door shut behind him automatically. Then he took a deep breath of fresh air before pondering what to do next.

He thought of what would happen if he ever went back into Eggman's lair and demanded that he change him back and send him home, not that he had any immediate desire to change back or go home. He decided that he didn't want to test the evil scientist's temper and would most likely get captured again and have his brain messed with.

Ben looked out at the distant green hills. He suddenly felt an urgent desire to feel the wind in his face and enjoy this while it lasted. He looked down at himself.

His rich blue fur ruffled a little in the slight breeze, and his red and white shoes shined in the sunlight. It was so odd not seeing his own human limbs and torso. He almost felt trapped inside this unfamiliar body, but the newfound strength and power coursing through his legs was telling him what he could do to be free of that sensation.

Readying himself back, Ben crouched slightly, then took off in the direction of the hills and in seconds was upon them, feet speeding across the grass, causing it to blow wildly around behind him in the slipstream. His only hope now was to find his look-alike and see what happens next.

* * *

"What does your son look like, ma'am?"

Kara Gardner was sitting at her kitchen table with a police officer standing above her, taking notes.

Kara was in silent tears. She gave a brief intake of breath and told him, "Here I have a picture," pulling out her smartphone and scrolling through her photos.

She had searched in and around the house and neighborhood, calling all of his known friends to see if he had visited any of them. None had seen him, not even his friend Jared, who explained to her that he had last seen him when he had been dropped off at home after school. The police had told her to wait at least 24 hours to see if he'd show up, but she pleaded with them and insisted that he would never leave without first telling her, so they finally agreed to investigate a small bit.

"H-he would never leave his phone b-behind either, you know how teens are, and his clothes and things are all on the floor," she had said.

The officer nodded, currently picturing her boy running around naked. He quickly tried to clear the thought. Surely he would have just changed clothes. Meanwhile, Kara tried to push the thought away of him having been kidnapped, but the officer informed her that it might be a possibility that they would have to further approach. _What could my son have possibly gotten himself into?_ she thought.

The garage door could be heard opening and Kara's head snapped up, senses at full attention. _Is that Ben?_ Moments later a masculine figure entered through the door of the mudroom and walked into the kitchen.

Kara sighed in despair that it was not her son, but then stood up and rushed over to her husband, Andrew, and buried her face in his shoulder as she embraced him.

Andrew was slightly taken aback, both by the cop in his kitchen and his wife's sudden act of affection. Yet, dropping his briefcase to the ground, he squeezed her back and tried to comfort her. After a few moments she looked up at him.

"What's happened?" Andrew asked her.

"Our son has run away," she replied with tears gleaming in the corners of her eyes.

"What? Are you sure? Ben's never done this before!" He looked over to the policeman, expecting an explanation with a glaring look in his eyes.

"Uh, sir, we are inconclusive at the moment as to whether he has run away, been kidnapped, or even in any danger at all, but I promise you that we will get it sorted as soon as possible," answered the cop hurriedly.

Andrew stared at him for a few moments before turning back to his wife and embracing her a second time.

 **Thanks for reading! I hope you are enjoying the story so far. Please let me know if you are or even if you aren't. I love any and all criticism! Thanks for reviewing!**


	7. Encounter

Chapter 7: Encounter

* * *

Ben continued to race the wind across the vast hills, dodging trees, rocks, leaping over gorges and rivers. The wind in his face felt glorious, and the red and white shoes on his feet were amazing compared to when he ran barefoot at Jared's house. His feet moved in a blur, but weren't getting overheated, and he never once felt out of breath. He was starting to feel extremely hungry, however. He wasn't surprised that his body would need to eat a bit extra due to all the running and calorie consumption.

Knowing that Sonic or any of his friends probably lived somewhere in the Green Hill Zone, Ben ran across the entire span of it before reaching an abandoned city of marble, turning, and tearing in a different direction across the hills until he reached another border. Going in this method, he was bound to come across some type of shelter or other lifeforms.

Suddenly, Ben tripped over a low branch that he failed to notice as everything was a blur as he ran. His foot caught it and sent him flying forward, head over heels. Ben screamed, "Aaahhhh...!"

Instinctively, Ben knew that when he landed he would injure himself pretty badly, crashing through something or another, hitting a rock or breaking his neck. As he sailed in the brief moment, he naturally arched his back and drew in his knees, forming a ball in the air. His quills bristled outward as he somersaulted over and over like a razor blade, terrified at what would happen when he landed. All of this occurred in just a couple blinks of an eye. The world spun around him, and when he felt his back hit a surface, he just bounded off of it, breath knocking out of him. He continued spinning, and then bounced onto the grass. Eyes squeezed shut, he felt himself bounce a few more times along the ground before coming to a stop.

Ben sat frozen, still clutching his knees. Gasping, he slowly lifted up his head, and assessed what had just happened: He had become a ball and bounded off a tree, but it hadn't hurt at all. His quills had protected him and he was fine.

He let out a huge sigh of relief. It all felt so strange. He was in Sonic's environment, and it was as if he had been running across the realistic, three-dimensional version of the Green Hill Zone in all of the classic Sonic games. It was better than a game, though. And much scarier at the same time. He was in a completely new world.

He had yet to come across a loop of any kind and was still skeptical to try running through one, although he knew he should be fine if going fast enough. He also had yet to come across any of Eggman's robots that normally littered the landscape. He figured there were probably more of them for the games' sakes, and not actually a threat anymore here.

Ben jumped up to his feet, brushing bits of grass out of his fur. He decided to continue his search for a structure of some kind. A little hesitant to go as fast as he had before, he started out at a brisk jog.

He sped up after a while after he regained his courage and his footing so to be careful not to trip again. Soon, he actually saw a loop ahead and decided, _Why not give it a try?_

His feet pattered one after the other, faster and faster, until becoming a reddish-blue blur. The huge structure of brown and green zoomed in front of him, growing larger by the millisecond. His arms extending behind him, he braced himself and his body began rapidly racing up the incline.

Then he felt a hard force as he smacked himself in the forehead into something that had suddenly intercepted in front of him, just as he had been upside-down-mid-loop. He and another body careened to the ground, landing hard.

Ben landed upside down, right onto his already-just-bruised head. He bounced a bit from the cushioning quills and fell onto his side. He groaned and sat up gingerly, putting a gloved hand up to feel where a large bruise was tender under the fur above his eyes. He then opened them wide when he saw what, or who, had fallen with him.

A spiky, humanoid figure with cobalt blue fur and red shoes was rubbing his own head where he had collided with Ben, his own eyes closed and groaning in pain.

Ben continued to stare with wide eyes in disbelief as he saw the actual Sonic the Hedgehog, sitting in front of him in the grass. He knew that this was who he'd been looking for this whole time, but actually seeing him in person was a sight to behold. It was different than looking at himself-turned-hedgehog in the mirror of his bedroom, which was a different sight to behold.

Sonic then opened his eyes, and gasped in shock as he noticed Ben, who gasped in reaction.

Catapulting himself up and landing into an intimidating fighting stance, Sonic exclaimed, "Who are YOU?"

"Wait, wait, DON'T attack me!" Ben hurriedly yelled, shaking his hands wildly in front of him.

Sonic held his ground, but froze. "Then explain who you are and why you've stolen my charmingly good looks," the hero said assertively, with a slight side smile.

Ben took a deep breath, looked at the other hedgehog, then slowly clambered onto his feet, keeping eye contact, and careful not to lead Sonic into thinking he was a threat.

"My name is Ben Gardner, and I'm actually a human."

"What?" Sonic said incredulously.

"It was part of Eggman's newest plan. He did something to me on Earth that turned me into a copy of you. It was another one of his plots to harm you!" Ben tried to explain.

"What is he planning? Are you on his side?" Sonic asked skeptically, never lowering his cocked fists. He didn't want to trust anything having the name 'Eggman' attached to it. For all he knew, this duplicate could be another robot with an outer skin to look like it was alive or something of the sort. He could be tricking him into believing he was on his side, like Eggman had done in the past.

"No, no, I'm not!" Ben tried to persuade him. "I'm being completely honest. Eggman tried to take over my mind but something went wrong and I managed to escape him by pretending to obey his commands. I'm still in complete control of myself. None of this is my fault." His eyes begged Sonic to believe him.

Sonic stared at the pleading look on his other face, his own masked in suspicion. He lowered his fists and crossed his arms, putting his weight on one leg and tapping his other foot, thinking.

"I really want to trust you, Ben," Sonic then said. He stopped his foot-tapping, relaxed his demeanor, and started walking over to his lookalike.

Ben stood uncomfortably—hoping—as Sonic began walking around him in a wide circle, examining his appearance. The hero leaned a hand on his hip and brought the other up to scratch his chin in amazement.

"The likeness is uncanny," he said. "You even have the same amount of quill bunches as I do...and the shoes! Where did you get those?"

"Eggman," said Ben.

Sonic didn't look surprised. He nodded thoughtfully. "He made me my first pair, too."

"I didn't know that," Ben was surprised instead. Why would Eggman have made Sonic his iconic running shoes? What was his history with the scientist?

"I'm still stumped. What would the egghead do with another me, anyway? How would that change anything he's tried before?" Sonic wondered aloud.

"I'm not so sure. He didn't explain much. I'm guessing that by creating a real, alive copy of you with your same power might throw you off your game," Ben speculated. Sonic listened. He had stopped pacing, and was now standing in front of him. "He wanted me to capture you somehow and bring you to him. I'm guessing that he's failed in the past because of the differences that Shadow and Metal Sonic had compared to you."

Sonic stared at Ben's eyes. "The same power...? Wait, how do you know all that, anyhow?"

Ben's stomach gave a loud, meaningful growl. They both heard it very clearly.

"Oh man," Sonic said, disregarding his last questions. "You must not have eaten in a while. That's an issue."

"How come?" asked Ben, clutching his midsection, wincing.

"Whenever I run a lot without getting enough food or sleep, I crash and feel terrible for days on end," said the hedgehog. He was glad—this disproved his theory of this supposed clone being a robot. "You need the right nourishment for a guy like me."

"Makes sense," Ben nodded.

"Okay, Ben. I think I've chosen to believe your motive and your story. I guess only my buddy Tails can help determine your trustworthiness a bit better than I can. For now, you need to come with me and we'll get you fueled up," Sonic assured brightly, giving him a thumbs up with a white-gloved hand. Ben smiled as he recognized the familiar gesture.

Sonic moved over to grab Ben's hand, with the intention of pulling him along with him.

"Uh, can't I just follow you?" Ben asked him.

"You'd only slow us down," said Sonic impatiently.

"Actually, I don't think I will, Sonic," Ben said. He casually tapped a foot behind him on the grass, looking at the other blue hedgehog.

Sonic stared at him for the hundredth time, looking slightly wary. "Did Eggman...give you my speed…somehow?"

"It's appeared so. I am exactly like you, after all," Ben said seriously.

"We'll see about that," Sonic said slyly. Then, he took off like a bullet in a direction Ben hadn't yet headed, yelling, "Race ya, then!" behind him.

Surprised at the abrupt departure, Ben felt a blast of wind from the slipstream, followed by a moment of panic, which passed quickly and he grinned. Then, following in Sonic's wake he tore off in the direction the dust was settling.

 **Race to be continued! Let me know what you think of the encounter. Is there anything that could have made it better? Thanks for reading and reviewing and following and favoriting and all that jazz! Gotta go fast!**


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